from Amazon
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
“Fans don’t care”
Finally, someone in the mainstream media has said it to millions of people:
“They just don’t care anymore,” SNY’s Gary Cohen said, with a distinct note of disappointment. “Most of them seem to care not much at all about performance-enhancing drugs.”
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The fans got over it a long time ago. It’s getting to be time for those of us in the press box to do the same.
Right, correct. We care about this less than the players do. As I keep saying, this is a workplace issue, a personal issue. If players have a problem with it, they have to deal with it as a union. And if they can’t, that means the majority of the players doesn’t want to deal with it. We as fans can’t expect more from players than they themselves expect from each other. And fans respond with their feet and wallet by giving money to MLB. It’s that simple.
The media however wants to make it not so simple. They think of MLB as the Church of Baseball. And with no pope, the Holy Writers jump all over themselves in order to be the loudest cardinal.
This is different from Ben Johnson, 1988 Olympics. He was not representing himself, or his team, but his country. He was carrying Canada on his shoulders. If the Olympics was not so tied to nationalistic pride, the Ben Johnson story would not have legs. Just like it has zero legs in the NFL and any other sport around.
Baseball is supposed to evoke that nationalistic pride, that virtuous game, the seventeen year-old virgin that all clueless dads need to protect. I have news for you dad: she’s been sleeping around, she likes it, the guys like it, and no one seems to mind. Except for you dad, and the wise old men who try to make it a law not to have sex with her until she’s 18. And you are not so heavenly yourself. Your heart is in the wrong place.
Baseball is a beautiful and perfect game. MLB is just one implementation of it, with all its vices. You want the virtuous baseball game, watch your prepubescent son or daughter play ball. That’s where your heart should be.